A New Orleans doctor is looking for veterans of either the Iraq war or the war in Afghanistan who have suffered traumatic brain injury or post traumatic stress disorder to participate in a free pilot trial of treatment that so far has had 100 percent beneficial results.

Dr. Paul Harch has been treating patients with hyperbaric oxygen for 18 years now, and since September has been treating war veterans who qualify. He needs more volunteers to round out the trial.

According to Juliette Lucarini Harch, Dr. Harch’s wife and a registered nurse at the clinic, all of the veterans who participated have “achieved good results. Some,” she said, “have had great results, and some have had unbelievably fabulous results. There will be some gains. You don’t know how much, but there will be some.”

Hyperbaric oxygen patients are put inside a chamber and then breathe oxygen under pressure. “When oxygen is under pressure,” she said, “it acts as a drug and stimulates the flow of new blood into the damaged tissue. It’s the only thing that can heal the brain.”

It is a painless procedure.

Veterans who qualify will be flown to the clinic (and home later) free, and sponsors are making lodging, meals and transportation available at vastly reduced rates.

Interested veterans are asked to call Dr. Harch’s office in New Orleans for an interview at 504-309-4948.